Meditation on Memories

Master Zhou has been wondering on whether he can learn anything of his missing memories from the World Above, and decides that Xiao Fa also needs to learn about his missing memories. He borrows the Great Talisman of the Butterfly from Takanata, and brings Xiao Fa with him to the Gardens of Harmonious Contemplation, where he meditates and hopes for enlightenment.

Instead of the particular enightenment he seeks, he realizes that what he should be doing is going to the Forest of Chin to walk in the woods and seek spirits/demons during the Night of Gates (often, during the change between the seasons, and coming soon).

Master Zhou asks around to see if anyone else is interested in coming and seeking forgotten things - between people who are interested in the idea and people who are willing to come along on any mad plan, he gets quite a few takers.

Anto finds an entry in his book regarding how to find forgotten memories from spirits:

Go into the Forest, and sit with your back to a tree. Put out before you dishes of plum wine, of salt, and of tears. That will attract the spirits you seek. But be careful - the ones who eat only the wine will tell you what you want to hear. The ones who eat only the salt who will tell you that which amuses them, and it will be cruel. Neither of these need be true, though it is possible. The ones which prefer the tears will tell you things which you have truly forgotten.

How to generate tears is an interesting question - Li Merit has some very hot peppers, but Hana suggests a better idea is to stop by the House of the Hidden Orchid to let Xie Xie play for them.

Once everyone is set, the group heads to the Forest, bringing a night-time picnic, and sets out on their individual quests. As it turns out, it is more difficult than expected to tell which sort of spirit is which, but most people can make a good guess at which things are memories, which are things meant to cause pain, and which are things that they want to hear.

Things Forgotten, and Other Things

Those who want to make their memory packets public are welcome to do so here; if you'd like the GMs to post it (since many of them were quite long), let us know.

(Anto) Would you know a memory, forgotten by the Unbinder?

In the northern Taiga, where the green glimmers like moonlight even on the sunniest of days and the bamboo grows fast enough that its wind splinters even into the World Above, there is a buried stone, deep and dark and sunken cold. Once every year or three or none in the circle of greengrowing stems, one comes, and binds an ancestor ghost. The memory is very confusing and non-human, but you think it's something Amikiri meant to deal with but never got around to.

(Lijuan) Would you know how to save all the children who need protection?

Learn the names and sigils for spirits and demons, and tattoo each child with a different name, surrounded with praises. Protective demons, in particular, are likely to meddle strongly to protect such a one.

(Lijuan) Would you know how your parents discarded you?

They were on the run from those who would kill them, and travelling with children was preventing them from hiding as well as they might. They left you and your sister at House Sung, promising to return, but never meaning it.

(Lijuan) Would you know how your parents were murdered?

Your family had come to take refuge at House Sung -- Lord Sung wasn't completely happy about that, but there were favors owed. You had been there for only a few months, when an attack came. There was shouting, and gurads running around -- but you now suspect that it was only a distrction, for the ninjas. You hid in a cupboard, and saw them decloak to strike down your parents -- and your sister, and the young daughter of Lord Sung that she was huddled with in fright. You heard the ninja talking, congratulating themselves, as they left -- parents, two daughters, that was the last of the line. You closed your eyes, trying to pretend that if you couldn't see it, it wasn't true...